Chemical arms have been used in the 30-month-old conflict "on a relatively large scale," says the report to be released by U.N. leader
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
U.N. experts, who went to Syria last month, are not allowed to say who carried out the attacks. But they said there is "clear and convincing" evidence that sarin gas killed hundreds of people in an attack on Ghouta near Damascus on August 21.
The attack sparked threats by the United States and other western nations of a military strike on
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
's forces. The United States says more than 1,400 people died in Ghouta.
Though the military threat has eased after Russia and the United States agreed a plan to put Syrian chemical arms under international control, the U.N. report will influence what measures are taken to make Assad stick to the plan.
"Surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used" in the August 21 attack, said the report.
While Assad blames opposition rebels for the attack, Western nations say only the government has such weapons.
"The environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used" in Ghouta, said the first page of the inspectors' report, which was inadvertently leaked by the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
"This result leaves us with the deepest concern," they added.